NORWALK — The play was installed earlier in the week and doesn’t yet have a name, but it worked to perfection.
Crestview punter Owen Barker lofted a pass to Shawn Bailey, who raced for the game-sealing 48 yard touchdown and the Cougars rolled to a 26-7 win over Norwalk St. Paul in a Firelands Conference showdown Saturday at Contractors Stadium.
The Cougars (9-0, 5-0) clinched at least a share of their third straight Firelands Conference championship and extended their regular season winning streak to 20 games, thanks in no small part to a gadget play that senior Caden Cunningham didn’t realize was on.
“We put it in this week and we didn’t have a call for it,” Cunningham said. “(Coach Steve Haverdill) was screaming at us to run it, but I didn’t know what he meant so I was just standing there.”
Haverdill was confident the play would work.
“It’s something we decided to throw in,” Crestview coach Steve Haverdill said. “We do little things each week in case, but we’ve never done it.
“There was another time earlier (in the game) … and we didn’t do it that time, but we looked to see how they were lined up to it. When we had that opportunity we said, ‘What the heck?’ ”
The fake punt came with about eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Cougars clinging to a 13-7 lead.
Barker lined up in punt formation on fourth-and-six but instead of booting the ball, he faked a handoff to motion man Brice Perkins and began to run to his left. Bailey, who was lined up on the left side of the line of scrimmage, leaked out and found himself behind the St. Paul defense.
He hauled in Barker’s high-arching pass over his shoulder at the St. Paul 30-yard line and raced toward the goal line. He made the punt return man miss near the 15 and tumbled across the goal line after St. Paul’s Andy Meyer tracked him down near the 3-yard line and clipped his heel with a diving tackle attempt.
“We figured we had them in a bind,” Haverdill said. “(The defender) either had to stay with Bailey or come up on Owen, which we figured he would because we had a delayed release.”
Bailey’s unlikely touchdown was the game-breaker in a defensive slugfest. St. Paul returned the opening kickoff 65 yards and scored on Ben Burger’s 6-yard touchdown run with 10:16 in the first for a quick 7-0 lead.
Crestview answered when Perkins hauled in a 25-yard touchdown pass from Hayden Kuhn on a third-and-10 play with 5:34 left in the first.
Kuhn added a 6 yard touchdown run early in the second quarter.
Both defenses took center stage during a scoreless third quarter. Cunningham had an interception and recovered a fumble in the stanza.
“We just really had to come out with a lot of intensity because we knew they were going to,” Cunningham said. “They did not want to lose on this field and we haven’t beaten them forever on this field.”
Trailing 19-7, St. Paul made one final charge but turned the ball over on downs at the Crestview 2-yard line with 3:46 remaining.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, Adison Reymer took a handoff and raced 92 yards to the St. Paul 6. Michael Mays took it the final 6 yards for a 26-7 lead with 3:05 remaining to seal it.
Crestview can win its second straight outright Firelands Conference championship with a win over Mapleton in the regular season finale.
“Our focus now is Mapleton,” Haverdill said. “We want these kids to go get it and not take it easy just because you beat St. Paul and have a share. That’s not what this is about.”
